Earlier today a user on the Bioware forums posted that he received a refund for Mass Effect 3 from Amazon. This was mostly caused by the unsatisfying experience that the player had with the game and in particular to the ending.

Video Game Writers, an independent gaming news site, investigated the matter further with their order from Amazon. According to a chat with a customer service representative Amazon will “issue a full or partial refund if you are not satisfied with the quality of Mass Effect 3, and it is the developer’s fault.”

As long as your purchase meets the refund policies outlined by Amazon you are free to get your money back, which could be all of it. A partial refund might sound bad at first but considering that Amazon is willing to take the product back for a game that didn’t satisfy the player’s experience is worth mentioning. The refund is for all versions of Mass Effect 3.

In addition to Amazon refunding Mass Effect 3, rumors are flying around that PlayStation Network and Origin, an online service from Sony and EA respectively, were also offering refunds for Mass Effect 3. I will keep you updated on this after investigation.

Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Mass Effect 3 has quite the established fanbase since the series first launched. After developing countless relationships with characters and hours spent into the game, people were dissatisfied with the overall experience and as a result are looking for a way to vent. Will other game developers and publisher be heavily affected by this? The future looks grim for the gaming industry.

2 Responses so far.

People don’t seem to recall that in the early 20th century, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to get rid of Sherlock Holmes to pursue other writing endeavors, fan outcry and demand made him reconsider and subsequently devise a clever return for the famous detective which still permeates to this day. Gamers who have been on a 5 year/3 game odyssey where their Decisions mattered wanted a satisfactory, well thought out set of endings versus cut-and-paste, vague drivel. So, no one is crying like a little kid having a tantrum as some Judas game magazine reviewers themselves are saying about their own audience. They are simply trying to get a proper farewell to a great franchise.

@K O, And this is a wonderful example of just how overbearing and self serving gamers are being about this.

A writer wanted to escape from a character he had become tired of writing, but instead of letting him explore new ideas and stories, they basically demanded that he do what *they* wanted. Its selfish, conceited and short sighted.

The franchise isn’t “over”, so wanting it to get a “proper farewell” is a moot point. If anything, the ending is setting things up for the state of the Mass Effect lore for the future games in the franchise that are already in production